1.06 Information & First Expansion

[Johan]

The 1.06 update is now nearing completion, and it is now in QA. We aim to release it in mid to late june, with an exact date to be confirmed soon, and at the same time release our first expansion, the Sword of Islam, with a suggested price of 9.99€.

The patch will include lots of new features for free, including expansion of the map into Mali-Songhay, differentiation on strong and weak claims, new plot, expanded combat, and other features to be announced later.

Sword of Islam will enable playable Muslims, with lots of specific new mechanics for the muslims, creating a whole new experience for the player, where laws, marriage, holdings, traits, titles and more work entirely different.

Every Friday until release, we’ll have a detailed development diary, where Doomdark will be talking both about what will be in the patch and what will be in the expansion.

Here's a quick screenshot...

and a video:

[video=youtube;o0QPD6qHMG4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0QPD6qHMG4[/video]

 

[Johan]

New features in a patch? An expansion this quickly? Am I wrong in assuming that these are signs the game is selling really well?

You are not wrong..

 

[Johan]

YES, for playable muslims and expanded gameplayfor them.

"Expanded combat"... Can't wait for dev diaries to find out more...

"First expansion" Now I'm curious. How does this relate to DLC policy? Are this required stuff for future patches or just separeted from the term DLC by amount of contents?

edit

Its as big an expansion as Deus Vult or Revolutions was in terms of content, so I wanted to use the word "expansion".. even though of everything from a spritepack to an expansion like Heir to the Throne is technically an DLC.

 

[Meneth]

Sad. I was hoping HOI3 expansion, but i can still hope?

"If I were a betting man, I'd put my life savings on us making another hoi3 expansion..."
Johan said that here.

 

[Darkrenown]

couldn't agree more, it's like "hey, you only bought the game on the second release day, that's why we are punishing you!", this does not only divide the community but also encourages piracy, why should i buy a dlc when i can't get the same features like people who bought it on day 1, isn't it better to me then to pay nothing and just pirate it?

Well firstly, I don't see what this has to do with SoI, it's not a preorder DLC...But no one is punished for not buying early, they are just not given the bonuses. If you think not being given the freebie advance customers got makes it ok to steal the main product, well, you are a terrible person. Congrats. All the more so since the one thing you can't get if you bought CK2 late is the gold forum icon which doesn't actually affect the game at all. Finally, day1 orders are the best for companies, so it's natural they/we want to encourage/reward them.

 

[Meneth]

Well firstly, I don't see what this has to do with SoI, it's not a preorder DLC...But no one is punished for not buying early, they are just not given the bonuses.

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment:
Such an argument could easily be used to justify something vital to the game not being included except for pre-orders, which I'd argue would be punishing late adopters.
Not the case with CKII's release obviously, but the argument itself isn't very good.

 

[Darkrenown]

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment:
Such an argument could easily be used to justify something vital to the game not being included except for pre-orders, which I'd argue would be punishing late adopters.
Not the case with CKII's release obviously, but the argument itself isn't very good.

Only if we redefine the word "bonus" and apply the ever-fun "slippery slope" argument. I suppose this is the kind of thing the devil's advocate might do, but I would rather you didn't It would also require the company in question to make a poor decision, as it does you no good to discourage late buyers, more sales are always good. Ideally you want anyone who comes late to see the pre-order bonus and feel "aww, that would have been neat, I should look out for the pre-order on their next game", not "why even bother if I don't get the Bloodsplosion Rifle?!(TM), the game is pointless without it."

 

[Darkrenown]

i see what you did there it doesn't mather if you call it a bonus for preorders or a punishment for non pre orders, it's the same.

I have no problem with an icon for preorders, but things like this:

For example, we plan to have a certain sub-forum which only 'true fans' of our internal titles can access where we'll let those people have a larger input on what we'll focus on for further development during the earliest part of the game's life-cycle. Of course, there'll also be a special icon indicating that you're a true fan, as well as unique avatars.

first off all you disencourage people who haven't preordered the game to buy it, 2nd you call everyone who hasn't preordered not a "true fan", there are people like me who have been playing paradox games since 10 years and i feel a little bit of a 2nd class customer when reading that, 3rd. why is there a difference if i buy the product on day1 or if i preorder it, you get the same amount of money, you should at least give all the so called "bonusss" to people who buy it in the first 1-2 weeks.

Lack of a bonus really isn't the same as punishment, it's just not. I don't feel like this is something that needs explaining, so I am not going to argue about it beyond this post, but if you buy X and receive X+Y, Y is a bonus. If you buy X and just get X you are just getting exactly what you bought, you are not being punished.

As regarding the rest of your post:
There is no other forum, that never happened.
No one has used the term "true fan" since that rather old post. I agree it's not a good term, but it's fairly moot at this point.
Icon + avatars is a forum bonus only, and in fact we DID give it to everyone who registered in the first X days after release, not just pre-order people.
In (very)short, day1 sales are more useful as it put you higher on stuff like top sellers lists sooner, which leads to more sales as more people hear about it/assume it is good if it is selling well etc.

Honestly, if anyone is discouraged from buying CK2 due to not getting the forum gold icon, I'd say just don't buy it, it's ok. I'd much rather people bought our games because they want to play them, I'd feel rather bad if they were just bought and thrown away to get a special forum icon.

 

[Kallocain]

stop derailing the bloody topic gentlemen!

Now, to mr. paradox guy:

THANK YOU! One quick question though. You said dlc's will be available but what they do will only unlock IF you buy it. I guess that means, in this dlc's terms, that the changes in Muslims will come with a patch but to play as them you have to buy the dlc?

Yes, exactly! /ms paradox gal

 

[Johan]

And again no word about achievements?

Where did we promise achievements?

 

[Johan]

Maybe with the file Crusader Kings II/Achievements/Achievements.txt?

It was something that was done, but we had to cut, as Connect was not compatible anymore.

 

[Meneth]

Wouldin be good to allow late adopters to buy pre-order bonuses?

While i can understand the argument about bonus-punishment, the inability to get content the other persons have is a restriction.
IS it really needed?

And if the only way to get content Y is to steal it, wouldn`t it encourage people to do so?

You can buy the CKII preorder bonuses, with the exception of the fancy forum avatars.

 

[Meneth]

Very good point, as all those southern seas aren't navigable you can't build ports there either.

The AI can't handle it unless you connect it to the rest of the ocean though, so you have to connect the red sea to the Mediterranean via Suez even though the channel was build long after CKII's timeframe.
(I do consider this a small sacrifice compared to the benefits of making the Arabian sea navigable though)

 

[Meneth]

Yes you miss one thing. You can send your troups from Island to France with ships. No problem. But If you make the Caspian Sea to a shipable sea... The AI will have a lot of ships there. This costs money and is...stupid.

Yup. The AI will often end up waiting for ships that will never arrive due to Suez being in the way.